The Summit County Council passed a resolution Wednesday, Oct. 7, calling on the Utah Legislature to repeal the state law that lets developers create their own towns.

The council's action, first reported by KPCW, makes Summit County the third local government to formally oppose the law. Resolution 2026-23 targets Senate Bill 258, the 2024 law that established the preliminary municipality program. The program allows up to three landowners with mostly undeveloped property to form their own towns, gaining control over zoning and land use.

Summit County joins Wasatch County and the town of Wallsburg in opposing the law. All four preliminary municipality applications filed in 2026 came from Wasatch or Summit counties. Only two can proceed.

The vote came two days after the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office reactivated Ivory Homes' Lost Creek application in Browns Canyon. That filing describes about 490.5 acres and 510 housing units, including 255 nightly rentals, with Ivory Development President Christopher P. Gamvroulas as the primary contact, according to TownLift.

"It's the tool itself that we take issue with, and this is our expression of our disagreement with the way this tool is designed," Councilmember Canice Harte said at the Oct. 7 meeting, as reported by KPCW.

Harte said the council's objection is not to the governor's broader goal of creating housing. A state subcommittee is drafting changes to the law, which Harte said could become either more or less permissive.

The council first considered the resolution Sept. 23 and unanimously expressed support, but delayed the vote after Vice Chair Roger Armstrong said he wanted to strengthen the language. County Manager Shayne Scott drafted the five-page resolution in response to growing community concerns, according to the Park Record.

The resolution noted the county is updating its two general plans for the Snyderville Basin and the East Side and that "community values … may come in conflict with future preliminary municipalities."

Ivory Homes is separately pursuing a county rezone that could allow 2,300 to 3,000 homes in Browns Canyon. The land is zoned AG-80, allowing roughly one unit per 80 acres. The Eastern Summit County Planning Commission forwarded a negative recommendation on the rezone in August, and the County Council had not scheduled a meeting to discuss it as of early October.

In an August email to state lawmakers, Gamvroulas wrote that the planning commission's denial meant "the only way forward for us is a preliminary municipality," as KPCW reported Sept. 24.

The state has 90 days to hire a consultant for a feasibility study on Lost Creek. That consultant then has 120 days to evaluate the proposed town's population, tax base and fiscal projections, according to the Park Record. Incorporation can proceed only if the study shows at least a 5% budget surplus.

A bill to repeal the preliminary municipality program is expected during the 2027 Utah General Session, which begins in January.